VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Charleston or Colombo?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Charleston for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Charleston’s own page.

Choose Colombo for

  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Charleston 72, Colombo 55: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Colombo 66: Charleston leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Colombo 45: Charleston leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Colombo 35: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Colombo 32: Charleston leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Colombo 50: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Colombo 35: Charleston leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Colombo 35: Charleston leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Colombo 45: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Colombo 30: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 40, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Colombo.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CharlestonColombo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonColombo
Official language-Tamil, Sinhala
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation6 m1 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonColombo
City population150,227647,557
People per km²53217,361
Museums within 10 km1910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston or Colombo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.